I was up late for breakfast, then packed and I was chatting with Moshi about South America which interested a Canadian girl called Kate who was getting inoculations as they are really cheap in Bangkok so I decided to go with Kate to get a jab for Japanese encephalitis which I'd missed in the UK as it was £180. We waited a while but here it only cost about £12 in total for the live virus. Turns out Kate has a blog from years ago so we talked a bit about blogging, her blog is here. Later I chilled at the hostel as it was a bit late to go to the museum but then Moshi wanted to play chess and I ended up leaving later than I planned and got to Mo Chit station on time but I couldn't see a bus station so I got a taxi and it turned out the bus station was not so near so I could have done with better descriptions from the travel agency. Taxi just got to the place as the bus was supposed to leave so I had a mad dash to get the ticket and later the bus but just made it ok. So I got on the bus and the conductor showed me to my seat which was a window seat in the middle of the bus that I'd chosen and it was next to a Thai girl while most of the other people had 2 seats to themselves. The seat was pretty good with a few buttons which you don't normally get, there's a picture below, the arrows move the seat like make it recline and the yellow button turns the light on but see if you can guess what the green on and off buttons do and I'll post the answer in my next blog.
Anyway the conductor comes around with a bit of food and a cup of water for everyone and the Thai girl puts it away in her bag tells me how I can charge my phone on the chair and later on how the buttons work before she pulls up her blanket to go to sleep. I finish my bun, drink some water and splash some as the bus moves and I start listening to music. The girl finds a tissue to wipe up the water and I remember that when I went to buy the ticket the girl at the desk took my photo to send to someone which I did think was odd at the time so I start thinking that maybe this girl next to me has seen my photo and wants to be my Thai bride or something. Anyway she goes to sleep, I listen to some more music and go to sleep. Next thing I wake up and there's a hand in my shorts stroking me and when the girl sees that I'm awake she pulls me out leans over and puts me in her mouth and does this amazing thing with her tongue and I'm thinking it's no wonder so many people marry the girls here with that kind of technique. Anyway that didn't really happen but my brother said I should make up stories for my blog so this one is for you Bro. About 11pm or so we stopped at a rest area. Now when I was young my Mum said the one thing I would always tell her about my day was what I had for lunch so this is for you Mum. I saw some food laid out on the tables and people seemed to be paying with their bus ticket so I went back to get my ticket and chose a meal of egg, some noodle looking thing and she gave me some rice in water in a bowl, none of it was very nice especially not the egg. Still I kept it all down but they did rip some of my ticket off so it may be you only get so many meals on the journey and I may now not have lunch tomorrow. Later on about 2am a police man boarded and checked peoples ID and passports and then escorted an Indian guy off the bus, reminded me of the time I was on a greyhound bus and someone got escorted off but that was a really crazy bus journey in comparison. Until the next blog. D.
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I went to king power mall and got a free BTS sky train ticket which was advertised on a leaflet. I had a look around their duty free mall but it was an expensive place so I moved on and went to the nearest station to get the BTS ticket working and I couldn't open the packet which happened to be was good as it had written "Do not open" on it so I handed it to the person working there who got it working and I took the train to the travel agents (Vega Travel) to get the bus ticket to Yangon booked which seemed to go ok. Again I used the wifi at the bar to check internet so got the most out of that meal and drink. After I looked at the map and decided to use/abuse the free train travel so I went towards the end of BTS line stopping somewhere en route to see a temple. I made it to Bearing (last stop) before heading back and went to Om nut station for the Tesco lotus there where I got some food. It's interesting that despite things being fairly cheap, a lot of things are not cheaper because I don't think they have as good supply chain management as we do in the UK. After I looked at google maps or maps.me (which is such a great app) and there was a floating market I thought maybe I could get to if there was a boat so I went for what turned out to be a really long walk and I just got near the river which was a dirty busy place with lots of trucks and I couldn't really get to the river, there was no boat so I gave up on the floating market and walked back past an oil refinery to a BTS station after along waste of time.
The trains were really quite good, they have floor markings showing where the doors open (like we have on the Jubilee line in London) and my ticket gave me 140 uses, think I got through maybe 15 in the day. Next I caught the train to see a park which was pretty nice and afterwards I went to the end of another line and did another long walk to try to go to 2 temples but I had to cross a river and there was no path so I ended up going over the road motorway bridge which was a bit dangerous. Did see one temple before heading back to the train and going to Thaksin bridge where I could see a massive empty building which I kind of feel like was there last time I was in Bangkok. There was also quite a nice temple which had a replica stone junk boat to see for 20 THB. After I moved onto another stop and past what looked like a park but was a racecourse I couldn't get into but there was another park to walk across which had lots of people running through and a big aerobics class. Finally I went to the national stadium stop and walked around their football stadium before popping into an art centre which had a slightly unusual exhibition of selfie paintings and the results of an art competition. Went back to BED station hostel and there was a Camera crew interviewing people talking about how Thailand or Bangkok is still worth visiting even though some things are shut during the time of mourning. A lot of the same people were still around like Moshi, JP and Devon. The hostel showed the film the terminal on the TV so we started talking about Catherine Zeta Jones and Michael Douglas. Up early 8.30 for breakfast which was the same except a change of fruit. Was ready to go out when I saw a note on my bed to go reception which I did and was told that because of the bed bugs they were closing my room so I would have to move and they would refund me one nights stay.
So I packed my stuff in storage and went out to the bus stop half a block away with no real sign and waited a while for the number 2 bus which I'd been told to take. And just like the Runcorn girls the night before had said nobody on the bus asked for money instead the woman who was the conductor seemed to just count passengers on and off. So I got off with lots of other people and headed towards the national museum and there were groups of people everywhere mostly in black to mourn the death of the king. I had seen a notice in the lift of our hostel saying some things like Khaosan road were not open like they usually are and I thought that may have reduced flight prices and stopped some people coming here only I checked and I booked my flight 2 days before he died. So I walked towards the museum and there is a big oval park where a lot of the mourners were congregating and getting free drinks and snacks and walking together in big groups so I took a few photos. The museum was shut because it was the wrong day of the week according to a man who worked there who said it was free otherwise so come back tomorrow. He also said the mourning happens every day and they are waiting for the prince (his son) to arrive and some people have come from all over the Country. The Grand palace was also shut so I decided to cross the river for 3 baht as it turned out (8p) and see Wat Arun the temple of the moon which is like a really steep pyramid. I walked around some of the outer areas but the main temple had scaffolding and cost 100 baht to enter so I took the boat back. Wat Pho with the reclining Buddha was open but also 100 baht and I'd been there before so I carried on walking to a few other temples listed on google maps before going to the Golden mountain (40 THB) which has views of the city, a temple on top and also gongs and bells to hit on the way which kept lots of tourists amused. After that it was getting on and I hadn't really eaten or drunk much and it was hot and I was a bit sunburnt so I headed back and caught a different bus which did charge me and was just less pleasant and more crowded but I survived despite not feeling good from heatstroke so I had a rest and shower back at the hostel. I got up and checked the internet and I had been given the Myanmar visa already so I headed out to get the bus ticket but it was close to 7pm by the time I got there and they were shut. I used the internet a bit outside the bar again and then headed to fortune town which is good for computer stuff got there and had a cheap but not very nice chicken teryaki as the meat was not up to standard. by now it was quite late and most shops were shut. Went back to hostel and I was sitting at the main table in the hostel with my book and a bottle of water and the Indian guy from the night before and the Korean girl started playing Uno but they didn't know all of the rules so they asked me and I told them and soon after they let me join them and we were still playing Uno when several other people came to sit and drink at the table so I talked to some of them while playing Uno and met JP and Devon both from New York who act on Broadway but didn't have too long a holiday and I told them about the bed bugs and having to move room. Later we moved on from Uno to play poker but not for real money, the Americans went to bed and some other people came back from a ping pong show where they were the only people there, the girls were old and not attractive and they had tried to make them pay 6000 baht for the pleasure but had managed to only pay a more reasonable amount. The Americans came back downstairs as they had bed bugs in their room and so wanted to move room. I carried on talking with some people after winning the poker and the guys I was playing with headed to bed before calling it a night around 1 or 2am. Answer from yesterday is Woolworths - it does still exist in Australia and probably South Africa in a different form though. Marks and Spencers are looking to expand. Went to customs and amazingly went through really quickly, last time I was here it took 2 hours. Then got the train into town which I like as its cheap, fast and as it's high up you also get a good view which is a nice start to a holiday. Arrived at the last stop and decided to walk the block to the hostel which may not seem much at all but they have really big blocks in Bangkok (google didn't help so I used a map and the distance was about 600 metres). Now I'd remembered how busy the streets are and how pavements get blocked by posts, holes, people with stalls or just things people have left there like motorbikes but I'd forgotten how bad the place smells, but it wasn't too much trouble and I soon had a room and managed to get the bottom bunk. Had a shower to freshen up and then I used the internet to see how to get to Myanmar and it turned out there was only one bus otherwise it was a plane at double the price and missing out on all the countryside. So I hot footed on the skytrain to the only travel agency that sold these tickets which was thankfully still open as it was quite late and they spoke good English as well which a lot of people in Bangkok seem to. So they said I could book the bus 2 days before going but the visa people won't process it over the weekend and it could take 3 days so maybe best not to book now as I had seemed pretty unsure when I went there. So I left and feeling hungry looked for somewhere to eat and found a sports bar showing the Bournemouth vs Tottenham football game so I went in there for my first Thai curry of the trip and a beer.
Afterwards I felt like trying to see if the 2 Gadventures guides I know from previous trips were around so I headed to the hotel but couldn't find it so I wandered back to the hostel which was a fair few blocks and managed to walk 15,000 steps for the day so some of the massage parlors with 200 baht one hour foot massages which could well tempt me over the next few days. Got back to the hostel and there was a young fun crowd with some people talking about having gone to the bar from the hangover film which was not cheap. As it was about 11 and I was pretty tired I headed to bed and went to sleep only to wake up a couple of hours later and I couldn't work out why at first but when I switched the light on and looked at my arm where it hurt there were two swelling lumps from bed bugs and I soon saw some on the bed and killed them. It looked like there might be more in the pillow case so I took that off and brought it downstairs with the blanket to get them both changed which they did as well as change the sheets. There was a guy snoring but I kind of dozed off until I was bitten again and there was another 2 bed bugs for me to kill. After that I didn't sleep too well especially with the snorer but there were no bed bugs so I eventually got some sleep. Ok apologies for the delay, I had trouble getting this website to work and save my post, hopefully this time it will work and if not I'll have it backed up anyway (tip - always backup work even if it means having a long Facebook post saved to a document).
This blog will probably be a bit dry, I mean this first blog doesn't even have any photos, but it should get better as I learn to use the site and add photos and maybe even videos later. So on with the story - I arrived at the airport fine, checked in ok which was good as I'd used a new company to book through and there is always a small worry that they don't really exist especially when the flight is cheap. Then boarding the plane I did a trick I've learnt as a single traveler. Since the seats are allocated there is no reason to get on the plane early unless you really like sitting on planes (which doesn't explain why everyone is in such a hurry to get off the plane afterwards) or otherwise you are worried about there not being enough overhead space which can be a problem but not on long haul. Anyway so I got on the plane as one of the last people and then I looked at my seat without giving it away that it was my seat, instead I went through the plane to look for the best seat and there wasn't much, then by the time I got back to the front someone else had sat in my seat but there were 2 seats free right at the front so I sat in them which was great as there is extra leg room although I was worried that there was only a fixed TV screen, but it turns out there was one which folds out so I got down to movies and the selection was really poor - just 6 films, thankfully I wanted to see both X-Men apocalypse and Captain America civil war. Also being at the front meant I got served food first and off the plane after the rich people had left. So we arrived slightly late in Amman (Jordan) but it didn't matter as my next flight was still 2 hours away. I wasn't hungry as I'd brought some food and there was food on the plane, so I wandered the airport and found a WHSmiths with mostly English books, 2 prayer rooms and a view of the desert outside. I was pretty tired but managed not to fall asleep and got on the plane to find I had 3 seats to myself so sleeping wasn't too much of a problem. Also spent the flight eating and watching a film called precious cargo which was a pretty standard generic action film and the other 3 films looked even worse not that I had the time. Later near the end of the flight I discovered that there was a category drop down box and there were loads of other films. Still arrived ok and on time in Bangkok. |
About Me38 year old English person travelling South East Asia - my 3rd gap travel Archives
September 2017
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